smith



(No Model.) A. H. SMITH. STREET SWEBPING MACHINE.

No. 447,528. .Paten-ted Mar. 3, 1891.

.Price ATENT ANDREV H. SMITH, OF NET YORK, N. Y.

STREET-SWEEPING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 447,528, dated March 3, 18,91.

I Application led December 26, 1890. Serial No. 375,839. (No model.)

To ctZZ whom it mag/ colmena Be it known that I, ANDREW H. SMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city and State of New York, have invented an Improvementin Street-Sweeping Machines,of which the following is a specification.

Street-sweeping machines have heretofore been constructed in which the dust and other materials havebeen swept into receptacles and raised automatically and dumped into carts or receptacles.

My present improvements relate to means for receiving and elevatingthe sweepings, and this improvement may be added to machines already in existence, or the machine may be constructed with special reference to its adaptation to the present invention. I employ a belt that runs upon or adjacent to the pavement and the sweepin gs are thrown upon this belt and against a detlector, from which they drop upon the belt, and the belt passes around a guide-Wheel and around one of the main driving-wheels, which wheel is provided with buckets that act in conjunction with the belt to carry the sweepings up sufficiently high for them to be discharged into bags or other convenient receptacles, so that by the present invention street-sweeping machines of the most approved pattern can be made to gather up the sweepings automatically.

In the drawings, Figure l is a diagrammatic plan View. Fig. 2 is an elevation sectionally of the axle at the line ce so, and Fig. 3 isa section at the liney y.

Street-sweeping machines are constructed and advantageously used in which the brush F is placed diagonally to the vehicle and the same is rotated by gearing, such as sprocket wheels and chains, 'connected with the back axle G or one of the driving-wheels H, or both, and this brush F is rotated so that the bottom thereof is moving in the same direction and at a faster speed than the vehicle. Hence the sweepings are thrown diagonally, and there is usually a curtain or deiiector of canvas hanging from the frame of the vehicle to prevent such sweepings beingl thrown too far and the sweepings are left in a windrow upon the pavement.

I make use of an endless band or apron A of suitable width, which occupies the position on the pavement where the sweepings have heretofore been left in a windrow, and this apron A is endless and of'suitable length. It may be of canvas or other flexible material, or it may be of sheet metal sufficiently thin tobend freely as it passes around the guidewheel B, and it also passes around the buckets C upon one of the driving-wheels H. These buckets are in the form of plates extending inwardly and radially, or nearly so, and at a sufficient distance inside the tire of the Wheel for the band or apron A to intervene without being injured by pressure upon the pavement, and the wheel H has a disk or plate of metal which closes up the same partially, as in Fig. 2, or wholly, as in Fig. 3, to prevent any sweepings passing through between the spokes, andthere is a pendent curtain or plate I adjacent to the outer edges of the belt, and these pa-rts are located with reference to the brush F in such amanner that the sweepings are arrested by the curtain or plate I and the disk or plate that closes the wheel H.

VHence such sweepings fall upon the upper surface of the lower part of the endless apron or band A, and they are carried up by the buckets C of the wheel H as such wheel revolves and the sweepings slide oft the buckets C successively upon a deflector or chute K of any suitable character, and are delivered by the same into bags or other suitable receptacles adjacent to the axle of thedriving-wheels.

The guide wheel B is suitably sustained. I have shown an arm B extending forward from the axle G and provided with a fork for the said wheel B. The curtain or plate I is represented as hung by straps I from the frame.

By this improvement an automatic elevating apparatus can be adapted to street-sweeping machines already in existence or to those that may be built with special reference to the improvements in question, and the sweepings are gathered up and delivered in a convenient form, so that hand Work in streetsweeping is almost entirely dispensed with.

In those machines in which the diagonal brush is to the rear of the driving-Wheel axle the wheel that is provided with the liftingbuckets C is to be placed upon an axle or IOO ceiving' the sweepiugs the saine is Worn outv rapidly by bein g dragged over and i n contact with the pavement.

I claim as my invention- 1. The combination, with a diagonallyplaced revolvingbrush and thedriving-wheels therewith connected, of an endless band upon which the sweepings are delivered, and ele Vating buckets upon the drivingwheel,

around which such band or apron passes, substantially as set i'orth.

2. The combination, in a street-sweeper, with the Wheel ll and buckets C, of the endless baud A and guide-wheel l) and the diagonally-placed sweeping-brush F, substantially as set forth.

The wl1celll,l1aViug a plate to close the spaces between the spokes and the buckets C upon such plate, in combination with the endless band A, passing around the buckets C, the guide-wheel B, and a hanging shield or apron I adjacent to the endless band and the revolving brush, substantially as set forth.

Signed by me this 16th day of December, 1890.

ANDREW ll. SMITH.

Witnesses:

GEO. T. PINGKNEY, .liAuoilqD SERRELL. 

